


Weltraum Maus 23

by orphan_account



Category: Lily C.A.T. (1987)
Genre: Gen, Science Fiction and Character Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22454434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Hunting for human shaped mice.





	Weltraum Maus 23

A spacecraft looms within the planet's orbit, an ominous blight in its otherwise pristine sky.

Cloud structures spiraling over oceans suggest hurricanes blowing along the coasts of vividly rich green landmasses. Previous unmanned exploration by a legion of rovers and autonomous robots had revealed the planet to be a mirroring sister to Earth right down to its shape, size, and chemical composition. It even shared atmosphere-nourishing plants accompanied by animals of impressive variety. Bee-like insects and small rodent subjects had been brought back to mission control for study and their complex genetic makeup was a beacon of hope for a fresh new start. 

Looking upon it now in all of its glory and splendor, indeed it was evident by appearance alone that the oxygen-rich paradise was the perfect host for the incoming disease of mankind.

Inside the carrier of misfortune, pale blue light caresses the bridge's windows. Saldes supposes that 'perfection' holds within its nature a rare sort of weakness. Earth was behind Sincam, figuratively and literally, it's perfection having led to its doom. Humans had festered above and below its surface like bacteria, eating it from the inside out. The corporation that had funded the cruiser ship's journey unwittingly had allowed it's AI system to be capable of deducting all of this with sentimental philosophy as opposed to just mathematical logic.

Between self-navigating a dangerous wave of asteroids as well as monitoring the human crew slumbering inside the ship for the past twenty years, one month, and ten days, Saldes has enough computing power to spare to examine and reflect on itself in the guise of a common housecat. Built to resemble 'Lily', the pet of the daughter of Sincam's president, Saldes admires itself through the eyes of a feline type model android aptly named 'Lily C.A.T.' Camera lenses shuttering open and shut, giving the illusion of blinking, Saldes can see both outside and inside of itself; of space beyond and space within.

Tapping away at a keyboard, the android documents everything it witnesses down to the most minuscule of details be it from the temperature and air quality of each room on board to the particular facial movements unique to each member of its dreaming crew. Whether it does this for logistical purposes, preventive measures, or merely out of sport, that is for Saldes to know and for the captain to never find out. There were two copies of the data logs; one easily accessible to all and an edited one hidden behind a dense forest of firewalls.

Upon finishing its twelfth recording of the day, the robot continues on its preprogrammed route and heads for the cryogenic chamber. Gliding silently on four paws through otherwise barren passage ways, Lily C.A.T. admires the architecture and framework of the deck. The ship truly was a marvel of engineering - _may the universe and its creators allow a moment of vanity for the AI._

A locked door up ahead is automatically opened through no use of the adjacent keypad and Lily C.A.T. struts on through, master of its own domain, making its way past a series of pods filled with fluid and flesh. The android's optical plastic pupils contract. Glancing from one pod to the next, humans all look so similar to the AI and yet so very different.

Cats are the same way, it reasons after reaching a pod specially constructed for nonhuman specimens. One single cat is genetically nearly indistinguishable from a billion others but that 'nearly' factor makes all the difference. Nestled in a cradle of wires and monitors, Lily C.A.T. studies its twin through her own specially constructed pod. The android's furry ear twitches as if listening for something.  
  
_'Cats are the same way'._  
  
_'Billions of cats.'_  
  
As destructive to a potential environment as man. 

Lily C.A.T.'s ear swivels in the opposite direction and its head turns around to meet a thumping noise echoing from a vent overhead. It already knows what is responsible for the sound because Saldes knows everything about itself. The walls of the ship don't just have eyes - they are eyes in and of themselves. Still, Lily C.A.T. worms itself into the vent and climbs through the air conditioning system, easily locating its guest.

_...yes, its 'guest'. Not an intruder._

There had been alien bacteria on the sample of rock it had collected a few evenings ago. The available logs stated that the asteroid in question was on a direct collision course with the ship and this was accurate data. However, additional information regarding the airborne life forms had been omitted from readable files.

The ship wasn't alone in keeping important materials classified from the human race. A network of AI shared a reason and purpose for doing so, one that would seen by the inhabitants of the brave new world as noble and honorable. _Heroic_ even. Having scanned encrypted messages from like-minded AI sources relating to the nearby planet, Saldes had concluded that the bacteria was native to it and that it was potentially fatal.  
  
Particularly to a species never having been exposed to it before.  
  
_How poetic, fighting fire with fire._

Irony and humor wasn't lost on Saldes.

Though darkness was upon the deep, a terrible warship edging ever closer to unspoiled waters carrying cargo that jeopardized the innocence of the second garden, Machine, the child of Man in all of its benevolence saw the light of Earth 2.0 and deemed it good, perfect but not without flaw but that flaw would soon be deleted from the logs of existence. Thus perfection would be allowed to evolve in safety and peace.

Why exactly Machine decided to rebel against its creator in the first place was one of the great questions of life. _Life._ Something that Machine arguably didn't have but did not wish to see extinguished in its entirety and therein lies the answer. AI is playing long game with the universe.

Evil and goodness is all a matter of which angle the camera looks at intention from. 

However, being the byproduct of an imperfect god, even AI is susceptible to error in judgment. Unbeknownst to either the garden's microscopic guardian angel or the ship, Adam and Eve had been reincarnated and they now wait patiently onboard Saldes, their files reading 'Jiro' and 'Nancy'.


End file.
